


Corporate Slave

by Nikki_Writes



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Food Service, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, I'm bad at tags, OC X CANON, Original Characters - Freeform, Young Genji, Young Genji Shimada, Young Hanzo Shimada, canon character x oc - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-08-27 10:48:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16701043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikki_Writes/pseuds/Nikki_Writes
Summary: It’s a widely known fact that Genji Shimada is irresponsible, rude, and ill-mannered.  Especially when compared to his older brother Hanzo.  He’s well known for his flirtatious ways, skirt-chasing, and for being prominent in the party scene.  However, now that his senior year of high school is approaching, he’s expected to take things more seriously.  Maybe not as serious as his older brother, but serious all the same.Short Version: Genji is forced to get a job in order to teach him some people skills, manners, and humility.  And not just any job, a food service job





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written an Overwatch fic before, and I've never introduced my OC Erin before either. This is a for fun thing, enjoy!

There’s never been a reason for Genji to fear being called to his father’s office. If anything, Genji’s usually happy to see his father;, but something about the atmosphere inside this time is different.

“I’ve arranged a job for you.”

That’s not something Genji’s accustomed to hearing. He’s only ever done some small jobs for the family business before, but something tells the young man this is going to be different.

“You’ve done well up to this point, Genji, but you seem to be lacking in some important traits: humility, manners, controlling that temper of yours.” Genji cringes lightly, especially at how long his father holds on to the mention of his temper. It’s a widely known fact that Genji Shimada is irresponsible, rude, and ill-mannered; especially when compared to his older brother. He’s well known for his flirtatious ways, skirt-chasing, and for being very prominent in the party scene. He takes advantage not only of how lax people are about selling alcohol and such to minors, but also of the power of being able to throw his name around gave him.

“So,” his father continues, “I’ve applied to several job openings under your name.   
This one is particularly interested in hiring you.” The man hands Genji some papers, on the front of them is printed a brightly colored logo with the company name The Sweet Indulgence in curly writing. Isn’t that the bakery in the mall he’s been to maybe three times in his life?

The youngest Shimada is… dumbfounded? Shocked? A normal job?

“You’ll be working there until you learn. Once you can prove to me you’ve learned some basic manners, humility, and control I’ll pull you from the job.”

 

That’s how Genji’s found himself here, standing in front of the pink, gold, and burgundy store after school hours, instead of out with his friends at a club on the other side of town. The glass doors lead into a small sitting area littered with people either at one of the small tables or standing in line to get to the counter to place an order. He has half a mind to crumple the paper in his hands and leave, but he knows he’ll just be escorted the next day to ensure he goes in. Might as well get it over with now.

He pushes open the glass door with an exasperated sigh, nearly hitting a leaving customer on his way out. The store feels even smaller than it looks with so many people in it. Everything is colorful, but in a way that it all melds together well and isn’t an absolute eyesore – of course, he still doesn’t find the pink, yellow, and red-brown color scheme to be appealing, but few would take color advice from a teen who wears a bright orange scarf while dying his hair a chartreuse green.

A woman behind the counter, looking to be in her mid-twenties, notices him and smiles while greeting him. He doesn’t respond, looking down at his paper instead.  
“I’m… supposed to be coming in for a job…” The words leave a sour taste in his mouth, and he can’t help but wince as he says them.

“Oh, you must be Genji. I’ve been waiting for you.” The woman turns to the other girl behind the counter with her, making sure she can handle the customers while she welcomes the new employee. She quickly makes her way through the back and out the employee door to welcome him properly. She introduces herself as the store’s general manager, and his new boss. “Come on in, there aren’t a lot of us here just yet, but we can go ahead and get you introduced to some of your coworkers.”

Genji’s never been a hesitant person, but he finds himself tentatively stepping through the employee door. If the scent of sweets wasn’t prominent before, it is now. It smells almost sickeningly sweet.

From what he can see so far, there are only three girls on shift, the one out front, the manager leading him through the door, and the one washing dishes… who seems familiar.

“Genji, this is Erin. She’ll be your shift manager and training you for the job.”

The redhead at the sink turns off the faucet and dries her hands on her apron before turning to face him. Sure enough, it’s the Erin from his class; the transfer student who never seemed to catch onto his advances nor that he was hitting on her for a week. Something’s off, though. Her eyes are dark, she looks so tired. Any other time he’s seen her she’s been smiling, so soft and cheerful.

She obviously recognizes him, too. Recognizes him as the entitled young man everyone knows him as.

“Welcome behind the counter, Shimada. To everyone on the other side, you’re officially a subhuman. None of them care who you are, what you are, or about your feelings or opinions. They just want their service quick and efficiently.”

… What a warm welcome…

The general manager laughs at Erin’s short speech. She explains it’s not usually so bad, but they do get their few bad customers, or have their rushed days, but all in all The Sweet Indulgence isn’t such a bad place to get first job experience.

First thing’s first, Ms. Manager – he didn’t bother listening when she told him her name – shows him around the store. Since they’re already there, she shows him the back room. It’s a bit cluttered due to lack of space for storage, but it’s where the cleaning supplies is stored, the dishes are done, and where employees take their designated breaks. The walk-in freezer where they keep their frozen products – “We’re, sadly, not big enough to bake things fresh on our own,” – is also in the back.

Behind the counter is where the employees take care of customers, bake the products, and decorate them. He’s shown where the baked products are stored, the ovens, where various supplies are stored when not being washed in the back. He also gets to see Erin come through the door to help with customers, watching as her face goes from dead to bright. Such an uncanny and rapid change in disposition.

He assures Ms. Manager he doesn’t need a tour of the customer floor, consisting of a trash can and five tables. The tour ends up with them in the back room again.

“And, one final thing,” the manager hands him a neatly tied bag, “you’re going to be needing these. The aprons and visors hang by the door, just grab one when you come in for your shifts. We’ll have a name tag ready for you on your first day.”

He takes the bag from the woman and turns to head out. He can’t help himself and glances up at the rows of aprons and visors that will be part of the work uniform, shining a light pink.

… He’s going to hate this… so much.


	2. Chapter Two

Genji clutches his jacket tighter around himself as he trudges through the glass doors of The Sweet Indulgence after school. Though the shirt is a light burgundy in color, the fact that it’s a work uniform in and of itself is humiliating to him. He hurriedly walks through the employee entrance to the back, groaning softly to himself as he glances over at the aprons and visors and takes off his jacket to hang on a hook.

His face contorts in detestation as he has a mental battle with himself over whether or not he really has to wear the apron and visor. He’s about to grab his jacket and head back out the door when it opens, nearly hitting him.

“Watch it,” he spits, glaring down at Erin who was rushing in.

She looks up at him in surprise before her look of mild shock turns to a smile. “You’re a bit early for your shift, Genji. I didn’t think you were so excited to be working with us.” He scoffs in response as she steps fully through her door, closing it behind her while shrugging off her coat. Hanging it up next to his, she pulls down an apron.

She looks up at him while tying the pink apron over her tuscany yellow work shirt. She motions to the wall of pink aprons and tells him he’ll be needing one of them and one of the matching visors. Genji cringes as he grabs one down, slipping it over his head before lazily securing it around his waist. His frown only deepens as he pulls a matching pink visor over his bright green hair.

Erin looks up at him again after adjusting her own visor. Her eyes light up for a moment as she turns around and snatches something off a magnetic board. She pins one to her apron before grabbing another and handing it to him. It’s a nametag, oval in shape, colored the same shade of Erin’s shirt. On it is printed ‘Genji’, the j and i dotted with hearts. God, this is embarrassing.

With another soft groan, he reluctantly takes it from her and puts it on.

“And with that, you’re an official member of the team. Welcome aboard, newbie.” A new voice from behind him called. Genji turns around to see a teen he doesn’t know.  
The boy is just a touch taller than him, neat black hair, and dark blue eyes behind simple glasses frames. A pretty plain-looking guy. For sure someone Genji would expect to find working at a place like this.

“I’m Riku. From the looks of it, we’ll be working most of our shifts together. So, if you have any questions and Erin is unavailable, you can come to me.”

“Hi, Riku! Has it been very busy today?” Erin asks their coworker.

Genji easily drowns them out as they talk about work. A skill he’s perfected during the many work meetings he’s been dragged along to, he lets his thoughts wander to how long he’ll be here, what kind of hell has his father dropped him in, and such.

“Well, that’s perfect.” Erin’s voice drags him out of his thoughts. “Do you think you can man the front line while I show Genji how things work? I wanna go ahead and show him how to make our products.” Riku nods in confirmation, moving back to the registers to take care of a new customer.

Genji becomes more aware of his work surroundings when Erin specifically calls out to him. She now has to show him where each product is stored, how they’re stores, and how to make them. He doesn’t look very enthused – and he’s not – as Erin shows him the specifics of the walk-in freezer. Everything has its own place to be in. There are charts to show how each box of cookie dough is to be stored, stacks of frozen cupcakes and notes on how each of them should be thawed, not to mention buckets and buckets of icing, cans of whipped cream, and so much stuff he doesn’t bother to remember. He’ll find them when he needs them, and if he can’t he’s sure little compliant Erin will be more than happy to help.

He watches as his much smaller – both in height and build – shift manager drags a forty-pound box of cookie dough off of the middle shelf, nearly falling once there’s nothing but her arms under it. A small chuckle escapes him at the sight, and he suddenly finds the box in his hands. He doesn’t find it to be that heavy, but he’s got several years of training to thank for that. A second forty-pound box is added on top of the first and Erin asks he take them out to the work space.

Being the show-off that he is, he laughs that he can easily carry a third box. But alas, Erin isn’t tall enough to stack on another one. She shoos him out of the freezer instead. He drops the boxes of cookie dough on the work table that takes up most of the walking room behind the counter and waits for Erin to join him to continue with his job training.  
Riku turns around from helping the last customer at the moment and offers a smile. “I know it’s just your first day, but are things alright so far?”

“These uniforms are hideous…” Riku laughs at that. Of all the things he could complain about, the first thing is the uniforms.

“Only on us, it seems. The girls are pretty cute in theirs,” is the young man’s response. His eyes fall on Erin as she comes in from the back and drops another box of cookie dough on the counter. It was clearly a struggle for her, but she quickly rights herself and hurries across the room to grab three metal trays.

Genji takes this moment to really look at her. Riku’s right. At the very least, the girl’s yellow shirt doesn’t clash so harshly as the boys’ burgundy do with the aprons. It looks cute on her, and it probably will be on his other female coworkers. Surprising as it may be, he never thought to really look at her or the girls that were working when he first stopped in.

. . . pieces of him are already dying. . .

The trays are now on the table in front of him, lined with parchment paper, accompanied by color-coded scoops, bowls of toppings, and a box of gloves. Erin has already pulled on a pair of medium gloves and motions for him to take a pair.

“You have to wear gloves when handling the product. And you generally have to change them between types as some are messier than others. And… don’t use the same gloves you used to handle raw product to handle cooked product. That’s cross contamination and will get us in a lot of trouble.”

She goes on to explain the flavors of cookie dough they dragged out, as well as where to look to know what color scoop to use, what topping – if any – to put on them, and for how long to cook them for. It’s all a lot of work, there are a lot of charts, a lot of specifics, none of which he wants to bother himself with. His shift manager won’t let him slack off, though.

Erin looks over at the tray of cookies Genji’s scooping. She quickly swoops in to explain that his placement of them is no good. If he puts that many so close together, they’ll cook into each other and won’t be usable. He sighs and glances over at her tray, rearranging his few to imitate hers. His aren’t perfectly flat on the bottom like hers are, but that doesn’t seem to bug her too much.

Once the cookies are scooped and in the oven, he takes the boxes of dough and drags them back to the freezer, once again laughing at Erin’s struggle to lift even a single box.  
She tries to teach him to frost cupcakes next, and he proves to be terrible at it. She tries to instruct him on the proper way to hold the icing bag; he shrugs her off instead. She ends up having to nudge him aside to take over, frosting the cupcakes quickly, fixing his sloppy decorating, and then handing them to him to put in the display case. Riku takes over in showing him how to place them while Erin sets up the next task. Genji drops a few, making a mess of icing and squashed cupcake on the floor. He could care less, he made sure to wear his least favorite pair of shoes, but he can see the twitch of a cringe in Riku’s smile and Erin’s look of worry.

His first day doesn’t go great, all in all. By the time they need to close he’s tired, far crankier than he arrived, thoroughly embarrassed, and on the verge of losing the temper that he’s swallowed a majority of all day. The most he’s let slip is the tone and volume of his voice when he responded to Erin’s instructions and corrections. She flinched every time.  
He’s supposed to be washing dishes with Erin and helping Riku wipe down the counters and tables as the day comes to its close. Cleaning just isn’t something he does. He decides to save himself from embarrassment by pretending he got an urgent text.

Erin falls for it easy enough. ‘Oh no, my brother needs me, some important family business came up. I really gotta go,’ kind of deal. She frowns at first but offers him a small smile.  
“Well, if it’s so important you probably ought to go. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

He rushes to remove his dirty apron – covered by cookie dough and icing by this point – and visor, exchanging them for his jacket. He quickly heads out of the store, then out of the mall.

“… you know that was a lie, right?” Riku turns to look at Erin through the back. She simply nods.

“Oh, I know. He’s had a rough first day, but he certainly won’t be leaving early tomorrow.”


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Customer service really isn't easy...

The next time Genji comes in to work, Erin is already there. She’s busying herself with putting out cookies. Rather than smile or greet him when he clocks in, though, she flips. As soon as his pin is in the machine she’s shoving him into the back room. There’s a not so work- friendly response to her actions on his tongue, but it’s quickly stopped when she throws an apron over his head; it’s tied around his waist in no time. Using the apron, she pulls him down to fix his pink visor over his head and then pin on his nametag. Now he’s work ready.

“Sorry, but you can’t go out there outside of uniform.”

As humorous as this moment should be, he really can’t stand her or her incessant nagging.

Today he’s told he’ll be working the registers with Erin. She shows him where he’ll find certain products, specials, combos, drinks, and so on. It’s simple enough, it’s just a matter of whether he’ll bother to remember their placement.

Another new face joins them behind the counter today. A young woman, shorter than Genji but easily taller than Erin. She’s more heavy set, easily out of high school, perhaps a college student. Her name is Yui.

The first few customers are easy enough. They usually just want a single cookie, a cupcake, or sometimes a cookie and drink combo. He struggles for the most part. Any time he looks up, he’ll see Erin easily fly through the line at her register.

Someone approaches his register without his noticing. After several seconds of him not noticing, the customer clears his throat loudly. Genji looks over at the gruff looking man who seems a lot more out of place in the bakery than the young Shimada does.

“. . . Can I help you?” Genji asks, voice flat and raising a brow. Not the kind of attitude this customer appreciates.

The man huffs before barking his order at the green-haired cashier. Genji’s eye twitches in irritation as he goes about putting the cookies in the bag and ringing the customer up. Of course, something has to go wrong.

“I come here three times a week, that’s more than what I usually pay.” The customer spits.

“Maybe you shouldn’t come here so often. I’m sure your waistline would thank you.” The young man mutters under his breath.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know what to tell you. That’s what it rings up as.”

The man’s face is turning red as he shakes, the young man not seeming to care one bit

“Is there something wrong?” Erin’s much sweeter voice eases its way into the situation. The customer explains the problem and how Genji isn’t doing anything to fix it. The small redhead examines the order, then how her coworker is trying to ring it up. “Oh! You see here, Genji? He got one of the multi-cookie combos, so you would use this button here instead of ringing everything up individually.”

She quickly clears the ticket and rings up the correct order. “I’m very sorry, sir. It’s his first day of register training. Have a great day, and we hope to see you again.”  
Genji is lost, confused. How did she diffuse the situation so easily? The man turns around and leaves with a small smile, all thanks to her stepping in. Hell, he calmed down the moment she stepped in front of him. He chalks it up to her soft face and kind voice.

Once the man is gone, Erin turns to face Genji. “C’mon, Genji. You have to put on a customer service face. You can’t go about your day scowling at customers, that makes us look bad and it gets them mad at us. Just smile. You just have to smile, you don’t have to mean it.”

Easy enough for a girl who never stops smiling to say. Genji simply rolls his eyes before moving back in front of his register as Erin goes back to hers.

The next few customers are quickly drawn to Erin’s register, pulled in by her kind smile and sweet greeting. While she’s busy, Genji takes a moment to gaze out past the glass doors to watch the mall patrons pass the shop. All of them either shopping for the upcoming holidays – Christmas is only three months away now – or getting off from work. How Genji envies their freedom. Day two of working here and he’s already aware of how great it was to have it when he did.

The glass door opens and Genji’s brows raise. A smile – more of a smirk than anything – crosses his features as a very attractive young woman approaches his register. He’s quick to lay on the charm, his voice easily lightening to draw the lady in.

“Hello there, beautiful. Can I get you anything?”

The young woman paused for a moment, blushing ever so slightly as she giggles at his flirtatious attitude. She places a cupcake order when she can around his pickup lines. He continues to chat her up while he fixes up her order and rings her up. She even stays just a little longer to finish their short conversation, making sure to leave a small tip in the store’s tip cup before leaving.

“Oh, so you can only smile when there’s a pretty girl on the other side of the counter, eh?” Erin’s voice pipes up from beside him. Looking over at her, she does not look impressed.   
He rolls his eyes again, his frown quickly drawing the corners of his mouth downward.

“I dunno if you would call that a smile. He looked more like a lech than anything.” Yui adds as she restocks the cupcakes in the display case. “Flirting with the customers will do more bad than good. I do suggest watching how often you do it. You’re honestly be better off not doing it at all, though.”

How many times has he rolled his eyes today? A lot more than he normally would, even when faced with his nagging older brother. There are far too many annoying, nagging girls behind the counter with him. Erin may be cute, but her incessant badgering greatly takes away from that. Normally that wouldn’t faze him much, but he has to spend a lot more time with her than he usually would around any annoying one-night stand.

The day continues like this. He openly flirts with any attractive female that walks through the door no matter how uncomfortable it seems to make them or who they’re with. He’s also nearly gotten into fights with many of the male customers to come in with sour attitudes. It’s even worse when the man with a sour attitude happens to be the attractive girl’s boyfriend. Erin is constantly having to jump in and fix the issues whether it’s apologizing to particularly shaken female customers, or calming and fixing issues with riled men. Everyone leaves her register happy.

Closing time rolls around again and Genji starts to come up with an excuse to leave early. When he looks up from his phone to relay his excuse to Erin he’s met with… Some tool. It looks like a broom, but it ends in a flimsy, flat blade instead of bristles.

“What…?”

“You’re on floors tonight. Yui had to leave early, so that leaves you to help me with closing.” Erin quickly explains. When Genji doesn’t take the tool from her, she grabs his hand and forces him hold it. “You take care of the floors while I finish up the dishes. Yui wiped down the table and counters before she left, so if the chairs are in the way at all just stack them on the tables.” With that, she walks back to the sink to finish the stacks of dishes.

Genji glares down at the tool he’s supposed to use to clean the floors. What… what is it even for? He’s never seen one, the house staff don’t use these things when cleaning the floors of Shimada castle. He must look horrible lost, because it’s not long before Erin comes back to him and starts instructing him on how to use the floor scraper. Instructs him on how to hold it, and what motion works best to scrape dough, food, and other such things stuck to the floor off so that it’s easier to sweep up.

Once that’s done, he’s similarly instructed on how to sweep. Erin even holds the dustpan for him – he wouldn’t have been able to do it himself; not with the way he’s holding the broom. The final task is showing him how to make the mop water, and how to mop the floors. By the end, his arms are actually a little sore. He never would have thought cleaning could be such a tiring chore.

The final task Erin has for Genji before they start packing away the leftovers from the day’s sales is for him to take out the trash. The trash? Him? She only nods, telling him that if he needs it there’s a cart next to the freezer he can use to wheel the trash out to the compactor. He huffs at her smile. She must really enjoy watching him struggle. It doesn’t even occur to him that Erin, a foreigner who’s been around town for only a few months, who doesn’t personally know him much if at all,, who he is, nor how he grew up. She just knows he’s used to his name giving him a power over most people.

The moment Genji pushes the cart through the doors, she sighs. She rubs gently at her temples, trying to massage away a forming headache. “He’s in for a world of hurt if he doesn’t straighten his act soon. He may be used to being top dog somewhere, but here he’s at the bottom of the food chain…” She turns to finish up the dishes, the water is nearly cold now. “He’s got a long way to go before he’s workforce ready… It’s a terrible time of year to be hitting us with a complete newbie.”


	4. Chapter Four

“The uniform is horrendous.” This is the first complaint Genji’s friends hear before they depart with him for their usual lunch activities – smoking something or another on the roof. Smoking what doesn’t matter, Genji officially can’t do it anymore. His manager might smell it on him, and that’s one report he doesn’t need going to his father. “And the jobs they have me doing? Ridiculous. They are not jobs for a Shimada. I’m beginning to wonder if that nag even knows who I am.”

“Geez, Genji. Why don’t you skip work today, just this once, and hang with us? You sound way stressed.”

“I can’t do that. If I don’t show up my shift manager will tell the manager, and then she’ll tell my dad. That’s the last report I need going to him. Then I’ll be stuck there even longer.” Genji kicks his feet up onto the desk, leaning back in his chair to stare up at the ceiling with a sigh. “It wouldn’t be such an issue if she weren’t such a stickler for the rules.”  
With his attention now on the ceiling, he has no clue who happened to be passing him to her desk. Erin’s eyes narrow slightly at his words. A nag, huh? She simply sighs and continues to go meet up with the other foreign exchange students, attempting to ignore the comment made about her. It’s always fun to share lunches with them.

“Y’know, we could always pay this stick in the mud shift manager of yours a visit.” One of Genji’s friends suggests rather loudly.

“Yeah, who is she? She’ll be way laxer with you after we have a ‘talk’ with her.”

A chill runs down Erin’s spine, and she has to pause in her step. The way they’re talking, it doesn’t sound like they mean to have a leisure chat. Something about the way it was said sounded threatening. She gets the feeling they don’t necessarily mean to use their words if they confront her.

Genji sits up right again, shaking his head, “No, no, that’s not necessary. You guys would just get me in even deeper shit.”

They give half-hearted boos at his response and leave for the roof. Erin feels a weight lift off of her shoulders. She’s thankful he wouldn’t let his friends come after her, but she’s still pretty upset by what he said. She’s been incredibly soft on him so far. She’s showed him everything, babied him through his first week on the job. He thinks she’s a nag now? He hasn’t seen nagging.

Genji huffs, turning to glance out a window several desk rows away. Some girls from his class wave at him, but his mind is elsewhere. He’s already dreading work today, and there’s still hours before he leaves for it. Lunch has lost its appeal, and he spends the lunch break poking at it more than actually eating it. When the break ends and everyone starts returning to their desks, someone stops next to him. All he sees is the ends of a skirt, so his first instinct is to put on his playboy charm, but that quickly falls when he looks up at her. His eyes meet with big brown eyes framed by red hair. He frowns.

“Don’t be late for work today. You still have a long way to go on those registers.”

He scoffs at Erin’s words, turning to face the other way, muttering about her being a nag.

 

He’s maybe five minutes late for his shift. Erin doesn’t seem to have anything to say on the matter since it’s only five minutes. Today’s coworker, however, gives him a hard glare. His new coworker is Anya, a pale brunette standing barely an inch shorter than Genji. She doesn’t look very happy, especially not when he tries to complain quietly to her that Erin is particularly hard on him.

“Maybe you should actually do your job, then.”

That’s the only verbal exchange they have throughout the day. Unless you count the angry looks Anya gives him when he slacks off or does something wrong. He hears them muttering to each other. It’s been a week, shouldn’t he at least have the basics down by now?

Great. The last thing he wants or needs is a quieter, angrier Erin getting on to him about his work.

Extra work on the registers is, in fact, what he got. As much as he dislikes the baking part of the job, it beats dealing with rude customers. Nothing changes from the first time he’s worked the registers, though. He still flirts relentlessly with the female customers, no matter how often he’s told to stop by them or Erin; he also argues with the men almost every time. However, unlike the first time, Erin is on him about it every time. She’s always telling him how he can and can’t talk to the customers. He can’t glare at them, scowl, flirt, nothing he would normally do when faced with these types of people. It’s annoying as hell.

And so, when closing time comes around, Erin hands him a small basket of cleaning supplies. There’s a firm look of disappointment on her face, not quite smiling but not quite frowning. A face Genji knows well and is used to. Knowing there’s no way around whatever it is he’s going to have to clean today, he takes the basket from her.

“What’s this for?”

“Cleaning the bathrooms.”

His eyes widen. Genji turns his gaze to Erin, staring at her in disbelief. She can’t be serious. The bathroom?

Anya laughs in the backroom. Erin’s big eyes don’t falter as she motions for him to go. “And don’t think you can get away with subpar, Genji. I want those bathrooms clean before anyone leaves. I don’t care if it takes you the whole night.”

And did he complain at school the next day. His friends were horrified. The bathrooms? It was disgusting! No job for a Shimada, what was his shift manager thinking? Genji agrees completely. It was definitely not a job for a Shimada, not that his family cared. It got mentioned briefly and Hanzo nearly lost his composure laughing. It was embarrassing.

It doesn’t stop, though. He gets bathroom duty for a while, generally on days he slacks off more or he’s rude to the customers – not that he’s made the connection. He thought doing the floors was bad, but nothing’s worse than cleaning a toilet and around it.

Then she has him clean out the oven. This is something generally done once or twice a week since it takes a while for it to build up. She shows him how. 

“The oven’s been off for several hours, it’s not hot anymore. You just have to spray the degreaser, let it set, and wipe away with the rag.”

“It’s not bad, and it’s not that hard.” Riku explains the night Genji’s given this cleaning job. Just because it isn’t hard doesn’t mean Genji wants to do it.

He’s had to wash and re-wash the dishes so many times he’s almost committed the task to muscle memory. He’s only had dish duty twice. Erin won’t accept a speck of food, dough, or icing being left on the dishes. She especially won’t accept him just tossing the dishes into a pile to dry. They won’t dry well like that, that’s doing more harm than good. So he’s had to learn the placement of all the dishes on the drying rack, not that he’ll bother to remember for next time.

The job just gets more and more degrading to his social status. It’s almost as though she has no idea what his standing as a Shimada means. He’s mentioned his name a few times as an argument against doing something. Erin simply shrugs him off and shoves the tools for the job into his hands.

The complaints against his shift manager just keep rolling in, and every time – unbeknownst to Genji – Erin overhears. She makes his jobs a little bit harder. But they’re only hard for him and she has no clue why. Has he never washed dishes before? Wiped a counter? Swept a floor? He’s more of a prissy rich boy than she ever expected, but that won’t stop her from drilling some basic skills into his head. He clearly doesn’t want them, but he’s not walking away from this job without understanding several things. Even if she has to implement them outside of work, too. And that’s really the last thing he wants.


	5. Chapter Five

Genji’s officially been on the job for a week and a half, and it hasn’t gotten any better. He’s still being introduced to coworkers – most of which seem to work more morning shifts – and is not getting along very well with any of them. He can tell they’re mocking him behind his back at his lack of basic skills; every time he turns around they’re smiling or giggling about something or another.

He finishes putting on his uniform for his shift. He got tired of Erin fussing over him when he doesn’t do it right, so he’s learned to put it on properly. He normally wouldn’t complain over a young woman being up in his personal space, but it’s not usually to straighten his shirt or to add more clothes than what he’s already wearing.

The bakery floor is bustling with Erin on the registers and Riku preparing baked goods for the display. Erin takes a deep breath after taking care of the last customer for the moment, stepping away from the registers for Genji to clock in. She gives him a brief greeting. She may not have been in for much longer than thirty minutes, but so many customers can be stressful.

Riku asks her if she could grab some toppings out of the freezer for him, and she quickly obliges. Her smile doesn’t falter once.

If Genji thinks back on it, everything about the way Erin’s been since his official first day has contrasted what he expected. He turns to Riku once Erin’s out of ear shot to voice this. He expected Erin to be absolutely miserable at this job with the speech she gave him, but she’s never anything but smiles.

Riku chuckles in response. “Oh, no. you just haven’t seen her without her customer service face. She’s just so good at her job that you can’t see how much she hates it. It’s an important skill to have in food service and retail, and one you really need to pick up on.”

The young Shimada scoffs softly at this, turning back to the counter to check for customers. A customer service face? Smile at the people who talk down to and belittle him like he’s nothing more than dirt beneath their feet? Not a chance.

Once Erin comes back to the front to deliver the toppings to Riku, customers start to come back in. There aren’t a lot, but there are enough to distract Genji from one particular customer he would rather not see here.

Now down to this customer as the last in the store, Genji can’t help but frown.

Hanzo is the last person he wants to see here. Ever.

The older Shimada isn’t pleased with his younger brother’s face. Erin takes notice, nudging Genji’s side with her elbow. Sure, he can’t keep up the smile very well, but you can’t stand there and silently threaten them with your eyes! “What are you doing here, Anija?”

Oh… so they know each other.

“… You’re a strawberry now? I thought carrots were more your thing.”

Erin’s eyes widen as a giggle tickles at the back of her throat. He does look like a strawberry! With his pink apron paired with his vibrant green hair… She has to excuse herself to the back room so she doesn’t embarrass Genji with her laughter.

“What do you want?” Genji grits his teeth, glaring straight through his older brother.

“Is that how you greet your customers? No wonder nobody leaves this place happy.” Hanzo’s eyes scan over the shop’s cake display, his eyes stopping on the strawberry shortcake cupcakes. “I’m here to gather information on your work progress for father. I don’t see even an ounce of progress, though. If anything, you seem to be getting worse.”

Genji’s glare only hardens, not that it affects Hanzo any. It likely just worsens the report going to his father.

“You’re only making this worse for yourself. Just get me two of your strawberry shortcakes, and I’ll be on my way.”

With a huff, Genji goes to grab two single cake containers. They’re out, so he has to go to the back to get more. He trudges past Erin who’s on her way out to make sure more customers haven’t shown up. She flinches back at Genji’s aggressive body language, and tentatively walks forward. Looking back into the room, she sees Riku stopping him from ripping into the box of single containers.

Once she finds herself back at the counter, she looks up at the young man Genji had referred to as ‘anija’. His eyes flick down to the young woman now standing in front of the register. Red hair and doe eyes. This must be the shift manager Genji’s complained to him and father about. Erin greets him with a smile, as any food service employee should. She seems easy enough to talk to, perhaps he can get more in-depth information out of her on Genji’s work transition.

“How is Genji adjusting?” He asks, watching as Erin’s smile faltered. However, she doesn’t drop her professionalism, explaining she’s not supposed to talk to outsiders about other employees. “Ah, my apologies. I am Hanzo, Genji’s older brother. I’ll be checking in every so often to see how he’s faring; to keep our father updated. You can ask Genji if you like, he’ll tell you the same thing.”

Erin mills it over for a moment. She really doesn’t see any resemblance between Genji and the young man standing before her. Genji’s foul-mouthed, and both looks and acts the part of a delinquent. Hanzo, however, looks to be more in control of himself, more mature.

Genji being forced to take on the job by his family would explain his blatant detestation for it. Erin shrugs it off. In the mood Genji’s in right now, she’s sure he’s just yell at her, and she’s not in the mood to deal with that. “Not… well. He really doesn’t want to be here, so that’s an obstacle in and of itself.” Erin goes on to explain his unwillingness to work, especially cleaning. And he’s always either flirting or picking fights with customers, taking too long breaks, or straight up not coming back from breaks he sometimes waits to take towards the end of the shift.

“I see. Thank you for the information, I’ll be sure to pass it on. He’s a troublemaker, he will likely cause more problems before anything ever gets better.”

Erin frowns a bit at this. At this time of year, everything’s already stressful. Genji is not making this job any easier – which is the opposite of the point of hiring more people during the holidays. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll mold him into a fine employee no matter what.” Determinations burns in the girl’s soft eyes. Just how long before Genji’s foul attitude extinguishes it?

Speaking of, he finally emerges from the back with the boxes. He slams a large pile on the island counter at the center of the work area before turning to glare at both Hanzo and Erin. He’s about to spit something at Erin about how she must have said something against him, but the thoughts are quickly wiped away. He’s already made himself look bad enough in Hanzo’s eyes. Erin likely didn’t say anything too bad, if the fact he walked in on her mentioning she wasn’t giving up on him told him anything.

With a huff, the younger Shimada quickly packages up the two cupcakes his brother asked for before ringing him up silently. Genji doesn’t say much to Erin after Hanzo leaves, and he doesn’t pick up on his work slack. There’s only three more days before the general manager asks for a report on his training from Erin.

A report she’s not looking forward to giving.


End file.
